Posted on 09/29/2011 10:36:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
Rick Perry isn't up to the job. Chris Christie isn't coming to the rescue. Republicans must accept that the candidate they want is right in front of them
The Romney Campaign
David Frum Why the GOP should embrace Mitt Romney Rick Perry isn't up to the job. Chris Christie isn't coming to the rescue. Republicans must accept that the candidate they want is right in front of them posted on September 28, 2011, at 4:28 PM David Frum recent columns
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Attention, Chris Christie fans. If you are looking for a Republican nominee who could actually do the job of president, who does not repel independent voters, who can survive a 90-minute debate without saying anything foolish, why the hell not Mitt Romney?
For three years, Republican activists, strategists, and donors have tried to find a plausible alternative to Romney, and again and again they have failed. For about 15 minutes, that alternative seemed at last to have materialized in the form of Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Perry still leads the national polls and is still raising money. Yet it's hard to miss the loud hiss of air escaping this particular balloon.
So maybe it's time to reconsider the long-standing frontrunner — the candidate who was more than conservative enough for party conservatives back in 2008 — and to rediscover his good points.
1) Given the dreadful economic conditions, the Democrats will have no choice in 2012 but to run a negative campaign against the Republican alternative. Message: "We may have disappointed you on jobs, but they will take away your Medicare, Social Security, and unemployment insurance."
Of all the Republicans in the field, Romney is least vulnerable to this line of attack. He did not associate himself with the Ryan plan to withdraw the Medicare guarantee from people under age 55. He did not denounce Social Security as a "monstrous lie." He has not condemned the unemployed as layabouts.
Yes, Romney has vulnerabilities of his own in a general election, plenty of them. But at least he is not adding more. Perry, on the other hand, generates new raw material for Democratic attack ads almost every time he opens his mouth.
2) After the campaign comes the presidency. Who can believe that Rick Perry has the wherewithal to do that job? The global financial crisis still rages about us. Just ahead: Debt defaults in Europe. After that? Perhaps the popping of China's real-estate bubble. What else? Who knows?
The person you want in that job in such a time is someone with a deep understanding of finance and economics. The U.S. is paying dearly now for electing in 2008 a president who lacked such understanding, despite many other fine qualities. As a result (as Ron Suskind now reports), economic decision-making in the Obama White House degenerated into a struggle between advisers to sway a more or less passive president.
Romney spent much of his career in financial markets. One benefit of that experience: He is less likely to be overawed by possibly self-interested actors than a less familiar president. The U.S. has had quite enough of that.
3) Mitt Romney is the Republican candidate best positioned to respond effectively to the challenge bequeathed by Barack Obama's health-care reform.
Tea Party Republicans talk loosely of repealing the Affordable Care Act. That's not so easy for three reasons:
i) It will take 60 votes in the Senate to repeal, and Republicans are unlikely to have them;
ii) Important parts of the Affordable Care Act are very popular, and repealing them will trigger intense opposition;
iii) Private health insurance costs are exploding again, and plain repeal of ACA will expose more Americans to the full impact of those costs — which they won't like.
Republicans need a realistic approach to what is feasible in the reform of ACA.
There are deals to be done to fix its worst problems (the financing mechanism, the additional Medicaid burdens on states, the lack of cost control) — but outright repeal will convulse the American political system for years and very likely end in failure.
The candidate who can make the necessary deals is the one who understands the health system best — and also the one candidate who cannot be accused of secretly wishing to destroy the principle of universal coverage. Mitt Romney delivered universal coverage before universal coverage was cool. That's an achievement to be boasted of, not an embarrassment to be apologized for.
There's no such thing as a perfect candidate. It's hard to predict who will and won't make an effective president. It's natural to repine over the candidates who actually exist and yearn for the candidate who is only imagined. Yet in this cycle, it may be the case that the best choice for Republicans and the country is the one that has been waiting there all along.
David Frum endorsement = Kiss of Death
I’m about 90% sure Mittens is going to be the nominee, which will make life at FR quite interesting for 2012.
This is what I posted there.
NO THANKS! We don’t need McCain “Let’s be friends” II. Why do these people think they can tell us how to vote? We are NOT brain dead democrats who need someone to tell us how to think. We don’t have to follow “our great leader/little messiah” because they will try to buy our vote by throwing a ffew bucks our way. We can take care of ourselves. If you want to tell someone how to think so they will follow, join the democrat party.
Says the guy who loves/loved Obama ......
‘Nuf said.
Christie will NOT run for President.
Right now, the choices are Perry or Romney, with Cain as the, ahem, dark horse alternative. Perry’s stumbles have given Cain a shot.
One of those 3 will be our nominee.
So let's start arming ourselves with specific arguments against Romney and posting them on these threads.
For the most part, FReepers just toss out a 'he's a RINO', then move on.
We need to stop complaining about Romney and actually say something of substance about the man's politics when he comes up.
Lord knows, we are perfectly capable of bringing specific talking points, cited sources, and digging up incriminating quotes with every other candidate. But with Romney we're lazy.
Actually he had nothing to do with the construction at all
Canadian Neocons for Mitt!
Or
RINOs stick together
Excellent point
Guess I did not know about the Romeny dirty tricks.
I thought all politicians have ‘their people handling things’, but the candidates themselves are ‘clean’?
If Christie has health issues, then certainly he should not enter this race. As for the current field? I’m still waiting to see who rises above the noise and can demonstrate leadership. At this point Cain appears to have the advantage on that score. But, there’s still a lot of time before the primary.
The scum Frum is actually trying to sell Romney as the only one who can save Obamacare??
Why did anyone ever hire such a politically deaf liberal moron?
If Palin doesn’t get in, Romneycare will win the nomination.
And I will never vote for Romneycare, for any office, ever.
I will not be voting for Romney if he wins the primary...and if Obama takes it then let him go down with the ship...I will vote for straight republican in all other seats and pray those in congress can halt Obama’s agenda by stopping what they can.
With Romney at the helm you’ll never know which way he’ll turn as his handlers pull the strings to benifit their Global agenda....In Mitt Romney’s case, his oath of office has already been sworn in a sacred LDS Temple ceremony. That oath is to the Mormon Plan for America, and it will supersede any oath of office as President.
CANE VS UNABLE
I am partial to that one. I am pretty sure I posted the slogan first.
From your link and worth posting more of.
Frum is a GOP establishment goon and royal Romney suckup.
FUMR
FUDF
Nuff said.
Yes indeed. I don’t think we need to be taking our cues from Frum. The GOP elites are not going to select our candidtate this time around. At least I hope not.
I voted for Herman Cain in 2004 and I’d be happy to vote for him again. And maybe even Newt. I like the new Contract With America he put out today.
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